David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > > Joshua Kronengold <mneme at io.com> writes: > > > Scott Ingram writes: > > >From: "Gametech" <voltronalpha at hotmail.com> > > >> Joshua Kronengold wrote: > > >> > Copyright should have a fixed term, both out of interest of fairness, > > >> > and to encourage creators of any age -- a monetarily motivated 90 year > > >> > old should expect to provide for their children if they produce a > > >> > best-seller just like a younger author might try to provide for their > > >> > later years. By the same token, though, anything other than a fixed > > >> > term isn't reasonable -- a reductio ad absurdium of this is a work > > >> > written by an immortal or virutally immortal creator -- such a thing > > >> > will never go out of copyright, and by principle 1, works should be > > >> > guarunteed to go out of copyright. > > >Reductio absurdium indeed. You might as well say that copyright will be > > >rendered useless because one day we might be able to record our memories > > >digitally. > > > > That's a tangent, and has nothing to do with copyright. > > > > The point is that fixing copyright to anyone's lifespan is ludicrous > > unless you think the possibility of someone writing a parody or fanfic > > (or even commercial variant on same) is a tragedy. And as much as it > > might feel like one (just like, say, a negative review), it's not -- > > it's just a thing. > > Parody is protected fair use, so that's not at issue. Most fanfic > *is* a tragedy. The better fanfic is a tragedy *twice* (they should > have been writing something original). > > I don't see how I can protect the creators rights if the creator can > be forced to sit by and watch people totally pervert his creation. > How, sir? A tragedy? While fanfic being publicly published without an author's permission is dangerous in respects to an author's rights, I'm going to disagree with the "should have been writing something original". Sometime I *want* to read more set in a certain universe. Sometimes I have dreams about an author's universe. I had one about Heinlein's _Friday_ at one point, and there's a novel that I'm slowly putting together about it. My novel. For me. I may, if I show it to a few selected friends without any chance of it getting set free into the wild, contact Heinlein's estate and ask them if they'd like to do a deal on it, but it is essentially their property if I release it to the public without a contract. You may find that to be a tragedy, but I assure you, I don't. I don't think I shouldn't have dreamt that. I don't think it isn't a neat idea, and I don't think I'm doing anyone any harm if I have this private idea, or even if I share it with a few friends. If I published it in a zine without the owner's permission, that would be a tragedy, because I'd have committed a grave breach of good manners. And to think I tested as a Yendi on the "what house are you?" test. I should have been an Issola.